Enhanced transmission and reception of remote digital diagnostic information of optical transceivers

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatuses for optical communications are provided. By way of example, an optical transceiver includes a processing device coupled to a memory, an optical subassembly, and a programmable device. The optical subassembly is configured to receive and modulate a first signal carrying high speed user data for transmission to a remote device over an optical link. The programmable device is coupled to the processing device and configured to receive data relating to digital diagnostic monitoring information (DDMI) of the optical transceiver from the processing device, perform forward error correction encoding on the DDMI data to produce a remote digital diagnostic monitoring (RDDM) signal, and send the RDDM signal to the optical subassembly as a second signal to modulate for transmission. The optical subassembly is configured to current modulate the second signal on the first signal to produce a double modulated optical signal for transmission to the remote device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority ofprior U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/136,268, titled“Optical Transceivers with Remote Digital Diagnostic MonitoringFunctions,” filed on Mar. 20, 2015, the content of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to optical communications, and inparticular, optical communications of remote digital diagnosticmonitoring information of optical transceivers with advanced errorcorrecting techniques.

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, high speed data communications are often accomplished throughoptical communications, in which optical transceivers communicate witheach other over optical fiber channels over a distance. The opticaltransceivers convert electrical data signals generated by users of anetwork into optical signals modulated at high data rates (or datatransmission rates), and vice versa. An optical transceiver includes anoptoelectric component or device that includes both an opticaltransmitter which is configured to receive electrical signals from ahost device and convert them into optical signals for transmission overan optical network, and.an optical receiver which is configured toreceive optical signals and converts them into electrical signals forreception by the host device. The optical transmitter and receiver in anoptical transceiver may share common circuitry and a same housing. Theoptical transmitter may include a transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA)and the optical receiver may include a receiver optical subassembly(ROSA). The TOSA is configured to receive and convert electrical signalsinto optical signals for transmission over various fiber optic links andthe ROSA is configured to receive and convert optical signals intoelectrical signals for processing.

With advances in technology, optical transceivers may include functionsrelating to exchanging remote digital diagnostic monitoring and controlinformation or messages with other remote devices over an opticalchannel. However, the optical channel may be affected by or mayexperience some noisy channel characteristics as in wirelesscommunications systems and thus there may be errors in the transmissionof the remote digital diagnostic monitoring and control information ormessages.

As such, there is still a need for further improved and more efficientmethods and systems for communicating remote digital diagnosticmonitoring and control information or messages among opticaltransceivers over various optical networks.

SUMMARY

This summary is not intended to identify key features or essentialcharacteristics of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tolimit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Example embodimentsdescribed herein relate to methods and systems for more reliabletransmissions of digital diagnostic monitoring information, messages, orother data between optical transceivers that are remotely located fromeach other.

By way of example, an optical transceiver for optical communications inaccordance with an aspect of the present disclosure is provided. Theoptical transceiver includes a processing device coupled to a memory, anoptical subassembly, and a programmable device. The processing devicemay include one or more processors. The optical subassembly isconfigured to receive and modulate a first signal carrying high speeduser data for transmission to a remote optical transceiver over anoptical link. The programmable device is coupled to the processingdevice and configured to receive data relating to digital diagnosticmonitoring information (DDMI) of the optical transceiver from theprocessing device, perform forward error correction encoding on the datarelating to DDMI to produce a remote digital diagnostic monitoring(RDDM) signal, and send the RDDM signal to the optical subassembly as asecond signal to modulate on the first signal for transmission. Theoptical subassembly is configured to current modulate the second signalon the first signal to produce a double modulated optical signal fortransmission. The double modulated optical signal is then transmitted tothe remote optical transceiver over the optical link.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the optical transceiver maycomprise a small form factor pluggable (SFP) or a 10 Gigabit small formfactor pluggable (XFP) module.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the programmable device may befurther configured to perform cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the datarelating to the DDMI.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the programmable device maycomprise a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the programmable device may befurther configured to: receive a third signal from the opticalsubassembly, the third signal comprising a RDDM signal from the remoteoptical transceiver over the optical link, perform FEC decodingoperation on the third signal, and recover DDMI data relating to theremote optical transceiver.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the second signal may comprise alaser diode (LD) bias current which is used to current modulate thesecond signal on the first signal to produce the double modulatedoptical signal having a modulation depth.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the optical subassembly may beconfigured to generate the double modulated optical signal with themodulation depth in a range of about 4% and about 6%.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the modulation depth is a ratioof a current value of the second signal to a current value of the firstsignal.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the data relating to DDMI maycomprise parameters relating to operation and management of variouscomponents of the optical transceiver.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the FEC encoding may use atleast BCH (31,16) codes or Reed-Solomon codes.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, a method of opticalcommunications at an optical transceiver is provided. At a fieldprogrammable device within the optical transceiver, data relating todigital diagnostic monitoring information (DDMI) of the opticaltransceiver is received. The optical transceiver may be configured tomodulate a first signal carrying high speed user data via an opticalsubassembly of the optical transceiver and further to current modulate asecond signal carrying DDMI data on the first signal to produce a dualmodulated optical signal for transmission to a remote opticaltransceiver over an optical link. Forward error correction (FEC)encoding and/or CRC may be performed on the data relating to DDMI toproduce the remote digital diagnostic monitoring (RDDM) signal, which issent to the optical subassembly of the optical transceiver as the secondsignal to produce the double modulated optical signal for transmissionto the remote optical transceiver over an optical link. Further, theoptical transceiver may be configured to receive the double modulatedoptical signal and demodulate the RDDM signal. FEC decoding and/or CRCmay be performed on the RDDM signal and the data relating to DDMI may berecovered for further processing.

These and other features of the present disclosure will become morefully apparent from the following description and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be obtained from the followingdescription in conjunction with the following accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an optical transceiver in accordancewith an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates another example of a bidirectional opticaltransceiver in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are block diagrams illustrating examples of anembodiment of the present technology in accordance with an aspect of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an optical transceiver in accordancewith an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate example implementations in accordance with anaspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example implementation and its associatedtiming diagram in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate an example of a frame structure in accordancewith an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate examples of eye diagrams in accordance with anaspect of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate examples of performance characteristics of thepresent technology in accordance with an aspect of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 11 illustrates an example implementation in accordance with anaspect of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of illustrative examples will now be set forthbelow in connection with the various drawings. The description below isintended to be exemplary and in no way limit the scope of the claimedinvention. It provides a detailed example of possible implementation(s),and is not intended to represent the only configuration in which theconcepts described herein may be practiced. As such, the detaileddescription includes specific details for the purpose of providing athorough understanding of various concepts, and it is noted that theseconcepts may be practiced without these specific details. In someinstances, well known structures and components are shown in blockdiagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts. It is noted thatlike reference numerals are used in the drawings to denote like elementsand features.

While for the purpose of simplicity the methodologies are describedherein as a series of steps or acts, it is to be understood that theclaimed subject matter is not limited by the order of steps or acts, assome steps or acts may occur in different orders and/or concurrentlywith other acts from that shown and described herein. Further, not allillustrated steps or acts may be required to implement variousmethodologies according to the present technology disclosed herein.

Further, while examples of the present disclosure will be discussed inthe context of optical transceivers or optoelectronic devices, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that the principles of the presentdisclosure may be implemented in communications of remote digitaldiagnostic monitoring information, control information, or other databetween two remotely located electronic devices and may relate tooptical and/or electrical communications. As used herein, the term“optoelectronic device” includes devices having both optical andelectrical components, and examples of optoelectronic devices mayinclude transceivers, transmitters, receivers, and/or transponders.

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example of anoptical transceiver including various components for use in fiber opticcommunications in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure.The optical transceiver may be used for various bandwidths of opticallinks, e.g., 1 Gb/s, 2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, 8 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s, 50 Gb/s,100 Gb/s, or higher, and may be implemented in various optoelectronicdevices of any form factor including, but not limited to, smallform-factor pluggable (SFP), 10 Gigabit small form-factor pluggable(XFP), or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, by way of example, an optical transceiver 100 (or100′) is configured to include various components including a mainoptical signal processing component 110, a Tx modulation component 120,a Rx demodulation component 130, a framing/deframing FEC error detection& correction component 140, and a processing system or processorcomponent 150.

Here, the term “processing system” or “processor component” as usedherein means any hardware, software, or any combinations thereof, whichare capable of performing or executing various functions or algorithmsdescribed herein in the present disclosure. The processing system (orprocessor component) may include, but not limited thereto, one or moreprocessing systems including processors, central processing unit (CPU),microcontrollers, controllers, integrated circuits, application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), hardware logics, gates, field programmablegate arrays (FPGA), programmable logic circuits, or the like. The term“software” may include, but not limited thereto, any machine readableand/or executable codes, instructions, or the like, whether in highlevel programming languages or machine readable languages, any variantsthereof, or the like, configured to perform various functions inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

In the example, on a transmission path, the optical transceiver 100 (or100′) may be configured to receive an electrical signal 155 carryinguser traffic at a very high speed (e.g., a data transmission rate of a10 Gigabits per second rate (Gb/s) or above) and convert the electricalsignal 155 into an optical signal carrying the user traffic (or payload)for transmission to a remote device over an optical fiber link. Further,in an aspect of the present disclosure, the optical transceiver 100 maybe configured to modulate on the optical signal carrying the high speeduser traffic with a low speed transmission signal carrying otherinformation or data, which is referred to as “RDDM signal,” “DDMI datasignal,” or “second signal,” such as parameters relating to health oroperation of the optical transceiver 100, such as digital diagnosticmonitoring information (DDMI) in order to produce a double modulatedoptical signal 157 through the Tx modulation component 120. Here, theterm “a double modulated optical signal” refers to an optical signalwith a first current modulation for main user traffic (or data) and asecond current modulation for other data such as digital diagnosticmonitoring information data. One technique of producing a doublemodulated optical signal may include a method for out-of-band datacommunication of digital diagnostic or other data between transceivers,as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,630,631 B2 to Aronson et al., thecontent of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.Further, DDMI data includes diagnostic data of the optical transceiverand various components, identification information, fault detection andmonitoring information, data relating to monitoring and controllingcomponents of the optical transceiver, or the like.

In the example, the Tx modulation component may include a laser diode(LD) driver for supporting diverse modulations, such as a directmodulation laser (DML), an external modulation laser (EML), or the like.An LD driver output of an electrical signal then drives to a modulationcomponent for generating a main optical signal carrying the high speeduser data. On a reception side, an electrical signal output from the Rxdemodulation component 130 may be provided to the main optical signalprocessing component 110 as well as the framing/deframing FEC errordetection & correction component 140. The Rx demodulation component 130may also include a post amplifier to amplify the received electricalsignal for further processing.

As noted herein, the optical transceiver 100 may be configured toperform framing and error detection and correction operations, such asforward error correction (FEC) and/or cyclic redundancy check (CRC)operations on the DDMI, into a RDDM signal carrying the DDMI data, viathe framing/deframing FEC error detection & correction component 140.The RDDM single may then be provided to the Tx modulation component 120for modulation onto the optical signal carrying the high speed usertraffic into the double modulated optical signal 157 for transmissionover an optical link.

On a reception path, the optical transceiver 100 is configured toreceive an incoming optical signal 159 (which is a double modulatedoptical signal) from a remote optical transceiver and convert theincoming optical signal 159 into the electrical signal 155 carrying thehigh speed user traffic. Also, the optical transceiver 100 may beconfigured to demodulate and extract the RDDM signal, via the Rxdemodulation 130, from the received incoming optical signal 159, andoutput to the framing/deframing FEC error detection & correctioncomponent 140, to extract or recover the DDMI data after performingdeframing and FEC decoding and/or CRC operations on the received RDDMsignal. The extracted DDMI data are then output to the processorcomponent 150 for further processing of the extracted DDMI data relatingto the remote optical transceiver.

In the example, as noted above, the Tx modulation component 120 mayinclude a laser diode and a laser driver circuit for modulating the highspeed user data onto an optical signal for transmission over the opticallink. The Rx demodulation component 130 may include an optical receivingelement such as an avalanche photo diode (APD) or PIN diode, as anoptical-to-electrical signal conversion component, as in an opticaltransceiver design. The Rx demodulation component 130 may include signalamplifiers such as a low noise transimpedance preamplifier (TIA) and ahigh gain post amplifier (not shown in FIG. 1). The TIA may beconfigured to receive and convert a small photo diode current (e.g., avery low alternating current (AC)) into a differential voltage signalwith low noise and to output the differential voltage signal to the highgain post amplifier for amplification purposes for use by followingdigital circuitry, e.g., digital signal processing.

The processing system 150 may be configured to perform various functionsincluding control and management of various components of the opticaltransceiver 100. Further, the processing system 150 is coupled to theframing/deframing FEC error detection & correction component 140 andcontrols operation and management of the framing/deframing FEC errordetection & correction component 140. In an aspect of the presentdisclosure, the processing system 150 may be implemented by or includeone or more processing systems or circuits, central processing units(CPUs), microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors(DSPs), control logic, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or thelike. Further, the processing system 150 may be coupled to one or memoryunits 161 and configured to control and manage all the processingfunctions including main optical processing functions and RDDMfunctions. The one or more memory units 161 may be configured to storevarious parameters including the parameters relating to the health andoperation conditions, etc. of the optical transceiver 100.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the processing system 150 may befurther configured to collect various data including local DDMI data,via an external interface such as an I2C interface coupled to theprocessing system 150, or an internal bus or one or more datainterfaces, and send out the collected local DDMI data to other devices.Further, the processing system 150 is configured to control variouscomponents of the optical transceiver 100 based on the DDMI data eitherstored in the one or more memories 161 or received from another opticaltransceiver which may be located at a remote site over an optical fiberlink. The 12C interface may include a data interface protocol betweenthe processing system 150 and a host device for exchanging various typesof data.

By way of example, the processing system 150 may monitor and/or controloperating conditions relating to a laser diode bias, a thermoelectriccooler (TEC) temperature, power, status of various components, etc., orthe like (which are herein sometimes referred to as digital diagnosticmonitoring information (DDMI) or data). Typically, conventional opticaltransceivers can monitor and control the DDMI data of their own, butoften cannot monitor and control the DDMI data of another opticaltransceiver which may be located at a remote site over the optical link.In an aspect of the present disclosure, the present technology describedherein enables such monitoring and/or controlling of the DDMI data ofanother optical transceiver in a more reliable and efficient manner.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating at a high level another implementationof an optical transceiver (e.g., a bidirectional optical transceiver) inaccordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. In FIG. 2, abidirectional optical transceiver 201 may include, among othercomponents, a main processor 203 (e.g., MCU) which is coupled to an 12Cinterface 204, an optical subassembly (e.g., OSA) 205, a transmissiondriver (e.g., Tx Driver) 207, a reception post amplifier (e.g., Rx PostAMP) 209, a field programmable gate array (e.g., FPGA) 211, a remotedigital diagnostic monitoring link interface (e.g., RDDM Link Interface)213, and clock circuitry 215.

In the example, the main processor 203 of the optical transceiver 201 isconfigured to receive various signals, including high speed user data aswell as control and/or management signals from an external device.Further, the main processor 203 may also be responsible for monitoringand/or controlling various components of the optical transceiver 201, asin FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, the main processor 203 is shown as amicrocontroller unit (MCU), however, the main processor 203 is notlimited thereto and thus may be implemented in one or more processors,microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSPs, ASICs), FPGAs, hardware logic,programmable gate arrays or logic, various combinations of hardware andsoftware components, etc. The main processor 203 may also include aninternal memory (not shown) which may be random access memory (RAM) ornonvolatile memory or the like, or may be coupled to a memory externalto the main processor 203. Further, in the example, the main processor203 is shown to include one or more remote digital diagnostic monitoring(RDDM) registers which are configured to interface or communicate withthe FPGA 211, via various signal exchanges. The main processor 203 isconfigured to send various command signals (e.g., CMD) to andcommunicate with the FPGA 211 via interrupt line(s) (IRQ) and one ormore serial paths (e.g., Serial Path), through which RDDM relatedinformation or data are transmitted to and/or received by the FPGA 211for transmission and/or reception processing.

On a transmission path, the FPGA 211 is configured to receive RDDM datafrom the main processor 203. In accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure, the FPGA 211 is configured to perform RDDM framingand forward error correction (FEC) encoding functions on the RDDM (orDDMI) data received from the main processor 203. Further, the FPGA 211is coupled to the RDDM Link Interface 213 which is disposed between theFPGA 211 and the OSA 205.

The RDDM Link Interface 213 may comprise an interface circuit such asRDDM Tx & Rx interface circuit, which is configured to operate astransmitter and receiver interfaces of RDDM signals to a laser diode anda photo detector of an optical subassembly and to produce the RDDMsignals. That is, the RDDM Link Interface 213 may be configured toreceive RDDM data signals (e.g., RDDM Tx) from the FPGA and producecorresponding laser diode bias current, which is provided to the OSA 205for modulating the RDDM signals on a main optical signal 225 carryinghigh speed user data that is to be transmitted to a remote device, toproduce a double modulated optical signal 227 for transmission over anoptical link. As noted herein, the term “double modulation” or “a doublemodulated optical signal” may mean that there are two modulations, onecurrent modulation for the main user traffic or data signal and anotheradditional current modulation for the RDDM signal with the same laserdiode in the optical subassembly. Further, in an aspect of the presenttechnology, the double modulation may differ from a case of an existingdouble modulation using amplitude modulation of the main user traffic,in such a manner that the combined electrical signal (together with themain user traffic and RDDM data) is modulated by the current of thelaser diode.

On a reception path, the OSA 205 is configured to receive the doublemodulated optical signal 227 carrying the high speed user data over theoptical link, and send the double modulated optical signal to thereception post amplifier 209 for processing of the high speed user databy the main processor 203. Also, the OSA 205 may be further configuredto extract the RDDM signal from the double modulated optical signal 227and output to the RDDM link Interface 213 photo diode current associatedwith the RDDM signals. The recovered or demodulated RDDM signal is sentto the FPGA 211 in the form of RDDM Rx data by the RDDM Link Interface213. The FPGA 211 may be configured to receive the RDDM Rx and performRDDM deframing and FEC decoding functions in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure. The RDDM data is extracted and sentby the FPGA 211 via the serial paths to the main processor 203 forfurther processing.

In the example, the RDDM Tx & Rx interface circuit may include RDDMtransmitter circuit which includes an additional current modulator forRDDM signals, and bias current and modulation current settings, and mayinclude RDDM receiver circuit which comprises photodiode currentdetection and amplifier circuitry, low pass filter and decisioncircuit(s) of a binary determination (e.g., logical “0” or “1”).

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, FIG. 3A shows anexample implementation of a transmitter interface portion of the RDDM Tx& Rx interface circuit, and FIG. 3B shows an example implementation of areceiver interface portion of the RDDM Tx & Rx interface circuit. InFIG. 3A, a RDDM Tx signal from the FPGA 211 is modulated and amplified,e.g., Mod Amp, and then current modulated along with a bias current(e.g., Ibias) of a main laser diode driver (e.g., a DML driver) througha transistor. In FIG. 3B, a TIA output, photo current or mirror currentoutput is low pass filtered. The RDDM signal is of a very low frequencyand the main optical signal carrying the user data is of a very highfrequency. As such, the high frequency components including the mainoptical signal may be filtered and amplified, e.g., by LPF & Amp. Thefiltered and amplified signal is then converted at least in part by acomparator, as a RDDM Rx signal which is input to the FPGA 211 forprocessing.

In the example, the RDDM (or DDMI) data may include parameters relatingto fault & alarm of an optical transceiver, performance monitoring ofthe optical transceiver, remote inventory of data of the opticaltransceiver, RDDM link status, etc. The fault & alarm parameters mayinclude operational parameters requiring immediate action at a remotesite, such as loss of optical signal (LOS), etc. The performancemonitoring parameters may include parameters or data relating to Tx andRx power, bias voltages/currents, temperature, etc. The parametersrelating to the remote inventory data of the optical transceiver mayinclude information or data on a module type, a product number (P/N), aserial number (SN), etc. of the optical transceiver. The RDDM linkstatus may also include parameters or data relating to link failure, orin combination with LOS, out of frame (OOF), cyclic redundancy check(CRC) errors, etc.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, the OSA 205 may further includea transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA), which converts an electricalsignal into an optical signal coupled to an optical fiber, and areceiver optical subassembly (ROSA), which receives an optical signalfrom the optical fiber and converts an optical signal into an electricalsignal.

Further, in an aspect of the present disclosure, the OSA 205 may beimplemented as a bidirectional optical subassembly (BOSA), i.e., acooled single channel (CSC) BOSA including a laser diode (LD) module anda photo diode (PD) module configured to transmit and receive opticalsignals across the fiber optical channel. The CSC BOSA may furtherinclude or be connected or coupled to a high speed data control circuitwhich may include a modulator that modulates a power output of the LDmodule such that a high speed data signal is converted to a signal fromthat can be transmitted across the optical fiber channel. As notedearlier, the OSA 205 is configured to receive and modulate a mainoptical signal carrying high speed user data and to receive and modulatebased on an additional input signal from the RDDM Link Interface 213 toproduce the dual modulated optical signal 227. More specifically, theOSA 205 is configured to receive the LD bias current from the RDDM linkInterface 213 and further modulate the LD module of the OSA 205 in sucha manner that RDDM signals are modulated on the main optical signalcarrying high speed user data to produce the double modulated opticalsignal 227 that carries both the high speed user data and the RDDM data.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, alternatively, the OSA 205 mayalso include the transmission driver 207 and/or the reception postamplifier 209 as part of the OSA 205.

Further, as noted above, the OSA 205 is configured to receive a doublemodulated optical signal 227 from the remote device over the fiber opticchannel. The OSA 205 is configured to demodulate, recover and send thehigh speed user data to the reception post amplifier 209 foramplification, and to send the RDDM signal to the RDDM Link Interface213 in the form of PD current. The RDDM Link Interface 213 may receiveand extract RDDM data (e.g., RDDM Rx) from the PD current and send theextracted RDDM data to the FPGA 211 for further processing, i.e., thedeframing and FEC decoding functions for recovering the DDMI data. Asnoted, the FPGA 211 is configured to perform the deframing and FECdecoding operations on the RDDM data to obtain the DDMI data, andforwards the DDMI data to the main processor 203 for subsequentprocessing. In the example, the FPGA 211 may be driven by an externalclock source or circuitry such as a clock 215 or the like.Alternatively, the FPGA 211 may also be driven by an internal clock.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, as noted, as for communicationbetween two optical transceivers over an optical link, a first opticaltransceiver such as the optical transceiver 201 may be configured totransmit a separate low speed transmission signal (e.g., RDDM signals),along with a very high speed main optical signal carrying high speeduser data, the separate low speed transmission signal being modulated onthe high speed main optical signal, as a double modulated optical signalto a remote device such as a second optical transceiver. In the example,the separate low speed transmission signal may include various messagesor data such as a command or an inquiry message from the first opticaltransceiver, or a message responsive to the inquiry message or commandfrom the second optical transceiver.

Responsive to the separate low speed transmission signal sent from thefirst optical transceiver, the first optical transceiver may receiveDDMI data from the second optical transceiver. That is, after receivingthe separate low speed transmission signal, the processor 150 of thesecond optical transceiver collects requested DDMI data of the secondoptical transceiver and sends the collected DDMI data to the firstoptical transceiver via another separate low speed transmission signal(including the collected DDMI data) as part of the double modulatedoptical signal transmitted to the first optical transceiver.

As noted above, the low speed transmission signal (or a RDDM signal),which may be either a command or a response, may be modulated on themain optical signal carrying high speed user data for transmission witha very small signal level. In other words, when the RDDM signal is sentwith the main optical signal, a signal level of the RDDM signalmodulation on the main optical signal may be very small compared to amain modulation so as to reduce any effect of the RDDM signal on themain optical signal. Further, the main optical signal may not disturbthe RDDM signal.

However, when such a very low signal level is used for transmission ofthe RDDM signal, a receiving optical transceiver may receive incorrector corrupted data due to various transmission errors, such as a lowoptical power level below an optimal range, crosstalk effect(s) of themain optical signal and RDDM signal, etc. As a result, retransmission ofthe RDDM signal may be needed and thus increased delay in communicationsbetween the two optical transceivers. As such, in accordance with anaspect of the present disclosure, to reduce the transmission errors ofRDDM signals, use of error correction codes or techniques, such asforward error correction (FEC) and/or cyclic redundancy check (CRC) maybe implemented on the RDDM signals, because use of FEC codes and/or CRCmay detect and correct a limited number of errors on the transmission ofthe RDDM signals, thereby increasing resilience of a communicationsystem to undesired transmission errors.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example implementation of FECand/or CRC in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. Inparticular, FIG. 4 shows example implementations of FEC and/or CRC inthe FPGA 211 in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. Asshown, on a transmission path, the FPGA 211 may include variouscomponents, such as an interface 303, a transmission buffer 305 (e.g.,DDMI Tx Buffer), a framer 307 (e.g., RDDM Framer), a forward errorcorrection (FEC) encoding 309 (e.g., FEC Encoder), a line coder 311(e.g., Line Coder). The FPGA 211 further includes a clock generation324. On a reception path, the FPGA 211 may include a clock recovery 325,a line decoder 313 (e.g., Line Decoder), a FEC decoding 315 (e.g., FECDecoder), a deframer 317 (e.g., RDDM Deframer), and a reception buffer318 (e.g., DDMI Rx Buffer) coupled to the interface 303. As in FIG. 2,when the RDDM reception data (e.g., RDDM Rx) is output to the FPGA 211,the clock recovery 325 receives the RDDM reception data (e.g., RDDM Rx)and outputs the RDDM reception data to the line decoder 313 for furtherprocessing. The RDDM reception data is then FEC decoded and deframed inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, and are thenplaced in the DDMI reception buffer 318 for transfer to the mainprocessor 203 for further processing. The interface 303 is configured totransfer the RDDM data (e.g., DDMI data) in the DDMI reception buffer318 to the main processor 203 (e.g., MCU).

On the transmission path, the RDDM data (e.g., DDMI data) is receivedfrom the main processor 203 (e.g., MCU) via the interface 303 and placedin the DDMI transmission buffer 305. Then, the RDDM Framer 307 and theFEC Encoder 309 may perform framing and FEC encoding and/or CRC on theRDDM data.

The RDDM Framer 307 and FEC Encoder 309 of the optical transceiver 201may be collectively referred to as a “transmission encoding block” andare configured to perform framing functions of transmit data withforward error correction encoding. That is, the transmission encodingblock is configured to make a frame out of transmission data includingdigital diagnostic message or data with error correction bits added,such as FEC parity bits. Similarly, on the reception path, the FECDecoder 315 and RDDM Deframer 317 may be collectively referred to as a“reception decoding block” and are configured to perform FEC decodingand de-framing functions on received data.

It is noted that forward error detection and correction (or also knownas “channel coding/decoding”) are known techniques in wirelesscommunications for controlling or minimizing errors in data transmissionover noisy communication channels. Generally, FEC adds redundancy totransmitted information using a certain method and enables a receiver tocorrect errors without needing to send a request for retransmission ofthe information, based on the redundancy. Typically, a certain number ofbits (or missing or corrupted bits) including bursty errors in thetransmission may be corrected by a suitable design of FEC codes. Assuch, different FEC codes may be available and be used for differentapplications and conditions.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, in the exampleillustrated herein, BCH codes are selected and used for framing and FECencoding techniques. Further, in the example, BCH (31,16) codes are usedfor the framing/deframing and FEC encoding/decoding at 10 Kb/s. Also,1B2B (also known as Manchester coding) is used at 20 Kb/s for linecoding at Line Coder 311 or Line Decoder 313. It is noted that BCH(31,16) codes is one example of binary block codes (also known assystematic cyclic block codes), and other codes such as Reed-Solomoncodes or the like may also be used instead.

FEC coding/decoding and/or CRC techniques may be implemented in one ormore programmable devices including hardware gate arrays such as FPGAsin various manners and are known and documented in various literatures.As such, detailed description of some aspects of the implementations isomitted herein. However, to provide a better understanding andappreciation of the claimed subject matter, description of some aspectsof FEC and/or CRC is provided herein in accordance with aspects of thepresent technology. Generally, in a binary BCH (n, k) code, a k-bitmessage is encoded in n-bit codeword. It consists of a k-bit message andn-k parity bits. At a high level, BCH codes are generally constructed asfollows: a message polynomial is obtained, the message polynomial isdivided by a generator polynomial and a remainder is added to themessage polynomial to form a codeword polynomial. The generatorpolynomial is formed by taking the least common multiple of all theminimal polynomials corresponding to roots. Further, at a receiving end,BCH decoding may be performed by first finding a syndrome vector S=(S₁,S₂, . . . , S_(2t)) based on a received polynomial. An error locationpolynomial is determined from the syndromes. Using the roots of theerror location polynomial, a number of error locators may be determined.As a result, based on the locations of detected errors, a number oferrors up to t may be corrected in the received polynomial. BCH codesincluding BCH (31,16) codes are one of the efficient error-correctingcodes used to correct errors occurred during the transmission of data inunreliable communication channels.

Alternatively, instead of the binary BCH codes, other FEC codes such asReed-Solomon codes may also be used. Reed-Solomon codes are very robustand may correct bursty errors in the transmission of data.

Further, the BCH codes may be concatenated either with convolution codesor with other block codes such as low density parity check (LDPC) codes.

Further, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) may also be used in conjunctionwith the binary BCH or Reed-Solomon codes. CRC is a hash function basederror detecting scheme, which detects accidental changes in thetransmission of data. In CRC, a first check value is computed based onblocks of data to be transmitted and the first check value is appendedto the data, before transmission of the data. The first check value isof a fixed length. On the receiving end, based on a block of receiveddata, a second check value is computed and compared with the receivedfirst check value. If the first and second check values do not match,then the block of received data contains a data error and as suchcorrective action may be taken, e.g., request of retransmission of theblock of data. Otherwise, when the first and second check values match,the block of data may be assumed to be error-free. When the check valueis n-bits, it may be referred to as an n-bit CRC.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a generatorpolynomial of BCH (31,16) may be given as:

g(x)=x ¹⁵ +x ¹¹ +x ¹⁰ +x ⁹ +x ⁸ +x ⁷ +x ⁵ +x ³ +x ² +x+1

and its corresponding BCH encoder may be implemented using one or moredivider circuits as shown in FIG. 5A. As shown in FIG. 5A, a box with anumber 350 represents a D-Flipflop and ⊕ represents an exclusive ORgate. The example divider circuit shown in FIG. 5A is configured tocalculate parity bits while receiving k-bit messages. When the exampledivider circuit calculates the parity bits, a gate signal 352 (e.g.,Gate) is zero, which means that the incoming k-message goes out toOutput. The calculated parity bits move out just after receiving thelast message bit by setting the gate signal to “1”. FIG. 5B shows anexample of a corresponding BCH decoder structure. First, a syndromegenerator 362 calculates syndromes and a key equation solver 364determines coefficients of an error location polynomial based on thesyndromes. A Chien search 366 then determines the error location basedon the error location polynomial. The output of the Chien search ishigh, i.e., a logic value “1” when there is an error, and the output ofthe Chien search is low, i.e., a logic value “0” when there is no error.Error correction may be performed an error correction 370 by inverting abit when the output of the Chien search 366 is high. Further, a delay368 may be used to compensate a processing delay from the syndromegenerator 362 to the Chien search 366.

Further, in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, CRC maybe implemented by a divider circuit in various manners. Further, inaccordance with ITU-T X.25, which is incorporated herein by reference,CRC-16 encoder may be implemented and used in the present technology, asshown in FIG. 5C.

Further, in the example shown in FIG. 4, although a clock is generatedinternally and sourced by the clock generation 324 in the FPGA 211, theclock may be generated outside and supplied by an external source suchas a processor 203.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, clock or datarecovery may be performed by using multiple sampling techniques withoutusing a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit or block. Generally, clockrecovery in a receiving device may require some reference clock forproper operations. However, some line code such as self-clocking codemay not require such a reference clock. Also, if a bit rate iscomparably low enough to sample a data signal several times, using anindependent high speed clock, clock data recovery (CDR) function may bedone by detecting edge(s) of data.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of clock recovery logic and FIG. 6Billustrates an example of a functional operation timing for Manchesterline code, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. TheManchester encoder encodes non-return-to-zero (NRZ) “0” to “01” and NRZ“1” to “10”. The term “NRZ” as used herein refers to a form of digitaldata transmission in which binary low and high states are transmitted byspecific and constant direct current voltages. As shown in FIG. 6B, ahigh speed clock samples input data. In the example, the high speedclock may be 16 times faster than the data (e.g., NRZ data). Using thehigh speed clock, edge(s) of the data may be easily detected. Forexample, sampling points may be determined using an edge counter. In anaspect, a counter which is running at the high speed clock may be resetto “0” and increase to a value at every high speed clock. The input datamay be sampled at Signal A or Signal B position, e.g., Signal A is 1 atthe counter value is 3, and Signal B is 1 at the counter value is 12. Assuch, to determine a sampling point, an edge counter may be used. Theedge counter may go to 0 at a sampling point and increase by 1 at a dataedge. Then, the sampling point may be determined as follows: (i) if theedge counter is 2, then Signal B is determined to be the sampling point,and (ii) if the edge counter is 1, then Signal A is determined to be thesampling point. Thus, by using data edge(s), clock and data may berecovered (e.g., CDR functions) without using a traditional, complexphase locked loop (PLL) circuit or block, which provides additionaladvantages or improvements such as reductions in components, size andhardware space, etc. over any existing technology requiring complexphase locked loop circuit or block.

Alternatively, the clock recovery or data recovery may be performed byusing either an internal PLL circuit or block in the FPGA 211. Further,the clock or data recovery may also be performed by a device external tothe FPGA 211.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, for framingand/or deframing operations, a small dimension, low-speed, low cost, lowpower circuitry may be used inside the FPGA 211. In particular, theframing of the RDDM data may include 10 Kbps information followed by theFEC encoding operation. Alternatively, the framing and/or deframingoperations may be done by a device outside and supplied to the FPGA 211.

Further, in the example shown in FIG. 4, a line code rate, e.g., 20 Kbpswith Manchester line code, is used which is below a low frequency cutoffof the main optical data signal, but other rates for common public radiointerface (CPRI), Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), Fiber Channel (FC) or thelike, may be used to result in additional benefits or improvements inmaintaining error free transmission and reception systems. The linecoder such as Line Coder 311 is configured to perform a line codingoperation which determines how binary data such as “1” or “0” arerepresented on the optical fiber link. The line decoder such as LineDecoder 313 is configured to perform a line decoding operationcorresponding to the line coding operation.

FIG. 7A shows an example of a framing/deframing structure in accordancewith an aspect of the present disclosure. By way of example, FIG. 7Aillustrates an example of framing and/or deframing processing of DDMIdata in an aspect of the present disclosure. For example, one or moreDDMI data may be prepared or framed into a frame of data fortransmission over an optical channel, at S403-S409.

At S403, DDMI data or message 413 (e.g., DDMI#1) comprising apredetermined number of bits (e.g., 16 bits) may be received at the RDDMframer 307 via the DDMI Tx Buffer 305 as shown in FIG. 4. Here, the DDMIdata 413 may be referred to as a DDMI data block. The FEC Encoder 309performs FEC encoding processing on the received DDMI data 413, using aFEC encoding technique, e.g., BCH (31,16).

At S405, a BCH (31,16) codeword is prepared by adding 15 bits of FECparity checking bits (e.g., FEC parity 415) to the DDMI data block 413(e.g., DDMI#1) for the purpose of detecting and/or correcting errors onthe transmitted DDMI data 413 at a receiving device. That is, the DDMIdata block 413 and the FEC parity checking bits 415 make up a BCH(31,16) codeword 417 (e.g., Codeword #1).

At S407, in a similar manner described above, a total number of onehundred forty-four (144) BCH (31,16) codewords are formed as in FIG. 7A,e.g., Codeword #1, Codeword #2, . . . , and Codeword #144, based onDDMI#1, DDMI#2, . . . , and DDMI#144, respectively. In the example shownin FIG. 7A, each codeword may correspond in short form to each code,e.g., Code#1, . . . , Code#144, as part of a frame format fortransmission of RDDM data, in accordance with an aspect of the presentdisclosure. That is, at S409, the frame format for transmission of RDDMdata includes an overhead portion, e.g., OH 419 of 496 bits, and codeportions including a total of 144 codes, e.g., Code #1, Code #2, . . .and Code #144, each code comprising a BCH (31,16) codeword 417. In otherwords, each DDMI block such as DDMI#1, DDMI#2, . . . , DDMI#144, may bemapped into a BCH encoded codeword, Code#1, Code#2, . . . , Code#144,and thereby forming a RDDM transmission frame format of a predeterminedlength after adding an overhead segment 419 (e.g., OH of 496 bits).

As such, as shown in FIG. 7A, one frame of RDDM data 423 fortransmission (or a RDDM transmission frame) may be configured to includea total of 4,960 bits in its length, including 496 bits of the overheadportion 419 in the transmission frame. Further, the overhead portion 419may include various information relating to processing of the frame ofRDDM data.

By way of example, at the receiving device, deframing of received RDDMdata is performed in a reverse sequence in accordance with the RDDMtransmission frame structure as shown in FIG. 7A. At the receivingdevice, one or more RDDM transmission frames are received and processed.The RDDM transmission frame received at S409 may be unpacked (orseparated) into one hundred forty-four (144) codewords at S407. Then,FEC decoding, along with error detection and/or correction, may beperformed on each codeword (e.g., BCH (31,16) codeword) by the FECDecoder 315, and a respective DDMI data may be recovered or obtained byRDDM Deframer 317, which then is placed into the DDMI Buffer Rx 318 fortransmission to one or more processors for further processing. As notedabove, since in BCH (31,16), a length of the codeword is thirty-one (31)bits, FEC decoding may correct any combination of errors a certainnumber of corrupted bits which is fewer than 31 in the received BCHcodes, and thus provides an excellent error detection and correctioncapability. Further, as described below, BCH codewords may be combinedwith CRC to further improve receiver sensitivity by providing enhancederror detection and correction capability for transmitting and receivingRDDM data over fiber optic channels.

FIG. 7B shows an exemplary implementation of a frame structure inaccordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. In the exampleshown in FIG. 7B, an example of a RDDM frame 500 may include a pluralityof data segments, for example, ten data segments 505, such as a segment0, segment 1, segment 2, . . . , and segment 9. The segment 0 mayinclude three blocks of data such as, an overhead portion (e.g., framealignment signal (FAS) overhead (OH)), a cyclic redundancy check portion(e.g., CRC), and reserved block (e.g., Reserved). FAS OH includes bitsindicating a start of a RDDM frame, and CRC includes a value of CRCcheck for the entire RDDM frame for transmission. Reserved may includedummy bits for reserved use and/or spacing. Segments 1 through 9correspond to data segments. Each segment may include 16 data blockseach corresponding to a BCH encoded codeword.

On a transmission side, as described above, with reference to FIGS. 2and 4, DDMI data may be prepared and FEC encoded as a RDDM frame by theRDDM Framer 307 and FEC Encoder 309, e.g., framing, BCH encoding, andCRC, in accordance with a frame structure shown in FIG. 7B, and may besent to a modulation unit in the OSA 205 (as shown in FIG. 2) in theform of a LD bias current for modulation and transmission an opticalsignal over an optical fiber channel to a remote device. On a receptionside, the remote device receives the optical signal modulated with theRDDM frame. Subsequently, the RDDM data (e.g., RDDM Rx) may be obtainedfrom a PD current received from the OSA 205 (as shown in FIG. 2). TheRDDM Deframer may perform CRC checking on the received RDDM data forerror detection and BCH decoding or error correction on the receivedRDDM data to produce DDMI data. From the data blocks (Data #0, Data #1,. . . , Data #144) DDMI information or data of the remote opticaltransceiver may be obtained and sent to one or more processing systems(e.g., the microcontroller 203, the processor 150, or the like) or otherdevices for further processing. That is, based on the received DDMIinformation exchanged between two remotely located optical transceiversor devices may communicate with each other and monitor and controloperation of each other optical transceiver or device.

Having discussed implementation aspects of the present technology, someexamples of performance test results are described for a deeperunderstanding of benefits and improvements of the present technology. Inan aspect of the present disclosure, some aspects of the presenttechnology disclosed herein may also be understood in reference to aneye diagram. The eye diagram may be used to characterize performance ofa transmission and/or reception system by superposition of multiple bitsof data. In general, the more open the eye is, the lower the likelihoodthat a receiver in a transmission system may mistake a logical “1” bitfor a logical “0” bit or vice versa. That is, based on the eye diagram,a signal quality and/or signal integrity may be determined.

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate graphical representations of signal quality basedon examples of transmission eye shapes depending on modulation depth ofRDDM signals. As shown in FIGS. 8A-8C, example eye diagrams oftransmission (Tx) waveforms with RDDM channel modulation areillustrated, with a modulation depth of 0% (FIG. 8A), a modulation depthof 5% (FIG. 8B), and a modulation depth of 10% (FIG. 8C). In particular,FIG. 8A shows a Tx eye shape of main user data or traffic without anymodulation of the RDDM signal (i.e., a modulation depth is 0%). FIG. 8Bshows a Tx eye shape when a RDDM modulation depth of 5% is applied to alaser diode. FIG. 8C shows a Tx eye shape when a RDDM modulation depthof 10% is applied to the laser diode. In FIG. 8C, it is apparent thatthe Tx eye shape deteriorates due to a larger modulation depth of about10%. As noted above, the eye diagram with the modulation depth of 10%shows more jitters and distortions (e.g., amplitude and/or phase errors)in the eye than the eye diagrams with the modulation depth of 0% inwhich the RDDM current modulation is not performed at all and thus onlymain optical data signal is transmitted and received. In the example(with FEC and/or CRC on the RDDM signals), it is noted that 5% ofmodulation depth may be applied to the laser diode current modulationwithout having any interruption of RDDM signal reception, which may haverelatively less detrimental effects on the Tx eye.

FIG. 9 illustrates another example of improved performancecharacteristic in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure.FIG. 9 shows examples of RDDM modulation depths against main trafficsignal modulation. In the graph shown in FIG. 9, a diamond solid shaperepresents a RDDM modulation depth and a square shape denotes a currentpeak-to-peak modulation value of a RDDM channel transmission,illustrating modulation depth (in %) versus digital-to-analog (DAC)number and modulation current peak-to-peak values in (mA). Further, thedotted line box may indicate an optimized area of the RDDM modulationfor the example. In the description herein, the term “DAC number” usedherein mean to denote control values for determining desired RDDMmodulation amplitudes, for example, RDDM signal amplitudes of a constantcurrent source of the RDDM Tx circuit.

As shown in FIG. 9, as the DAC number increases the modulation depthalso increases, and consequently final optical waveforms deteriorate,and FIG. 10 shows corresponding decrease in mask margin values. That is,in an aspect of the present disclosure, in FIG. 9, as the modulationdepth of RDDM channel is increased, the mask margin (for example, whenusing OC-48 SONET mask) will deteriorate to lower values of the eyemargin in a linear manner. Based on numerous simulations and tests, anoptimum modulation depth may be determined to be in a range of 4%-6% ofmodulation depth, compared to a main optical signal without having anyharmful effects on the main optical signal and the RDDM signal. That is,for an optical result, the LD bias current for a RDDM signal may bedetermined to have a value of LD bias current corresponding to themodulation depth of between about 4% and about 6%.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, when the modulation depth for the RDDMsignal is increased, e.g., about 4.5% to about 9%, a mask margin of amain channel (a margin of the Tx optical eye diagram), in a case ofOC-48, for example, will deteriorate, for example, about 23.3% and about18.3%. This means that compared to the case when no RDDM signalmodulation is used, there will be about 5% and 10% penalty of the maskmargin for 5% and 10% modulation depth, respectively. As such, to keepthe Tx optical waveforms in a better shape, a lower modulation depth maybe needed while maintaining the required performance of RDDMcommunications.

As described in the present disclosure, various embodiments of thepresent technology provide improved methods and systems for providinghighly reliable communications of digital diagnostic information orother data between remotely located optical transceivers or devices overoptical links.

In an aspect of the present disclosure, as described above, variousblocks, components, or units such as RDDM Framer/Deframer, FECEncoder/Decoder, Line coder/Decoder, etc. each may be implemented as ahardware component, a software component, or any combinations ofthereof.

Various aspects of the present disclosure may also be implemented by oneor more processing systems. For example, the optical transceiver 100 (or201), or its various components as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may beimplemented with a bus architecture, which may include a bus and anysuitable number of interconnecting buses and bridges, as shown in FIG.11.

FIG. 11 shows a diagram illustrating an example of a processing system.As shown in FIG. 11, the bus may link together various circuits,including one or more processing systems (or processors), one or morememories, one or more communication interfaces, and/or one or moreinput/output devices. The one or more processing systems may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium. Further, the one or more processing systems may include one ormore processors, such as microprocessors that interpret and executeinstructions. In other implementations, the one or more processingsystems may be implemented as or include one or more applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable logic arrays, or thelike. The software, when executed by the one or more processing systems,may cause the one or more processing systems to perform the variousfunctions described herein for any particular apparatus. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium may also be used for storingdata that is manipulated by the one or more processing systems whenexecuting software. The one or more memories may include various typesof memories, including a random access memory and/or a read only memory,and/or other types of magnetic or optical recording medium and itscorresponding device for storing information and/or instructions and/orretrieval thereof. The one or more communication interfaces may alsoinclude any transceiver-like mechanism that enables communication withother devices and/or systems, including optical transceivers (e.g., TOSAand/or ROSA). The one or more input/output devices may include devicesthat permit inputting information and/or outputting information to anoperator.

The term “small form-factor (SFP)” or “SFP module” as used herein refersto a specification for optical modular transceivers, which are designedfor use with small form factor connectors and may be hot-swappabledevices. The SFP modules may be multi-source agreement (MSA) compliantand allow for optical and/or electrical interfaces, converting theelectrical signals to optical signals, vice versa, and may be availablefor use with a variety of media, such as copper media, optical fiber(e.g., multimode optical fiber, or single mode optical fiber), etc.Generally, an existing SFP module may be used to plug into a port of anetwork switch and connect to a fiber channel and gigabit Ethernet (GbE)optical fiber cables at the another location thereon. Thus, the existingSFP module may enable the same electrical port on the network switch toconnect to different types of optical fibers, including multi-mode orsingle-mode fibers.

Even though particular combinations of features are disclosed in thespecification and/or recited in the claims, these combinations are notintended to limit the disclosure of the present technology. Further, themethods or methodologies for the present technology disclosed herein maybe implemented in software, hardware, any combinations of software andhardware, a computer program or firmware incorporated in a computerreadable medium for execution by a controller, a processor, a computer,or a processing system that includes one or more processors. Examples ofprocessors include microcontrollers, microprocessors, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), discrete hardware circuits, gated logic, statemachines, programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), and other suitable hardware configured to performvarious functions described herein. The term “software” as used hereinis to be construed broadly to mean any instructions, instruction sets,programs, subprograms, code, program code, software modules,applications, software packages, routines, objects, executables, threadsof execution, procedures, functions, etc. including firmware, microcode,middleware, software, hardware description language, or the like.

Also, the term “software” as used herein includes various types ofmachine instructions including instructions, code, programs,subprograms, software modules, applications, software packages,routines, subroutines, executables, procedures, functions, etc. Thesoftware may also refer to general software, firmware, middleware,microcode, hardware description language, or etc. As noted above, thesoftware may be stored on a computer-readable medium.

Examples of a computer-readable medium may include a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, such as, by way of example, an optical disk, amagnetic storage device, a digital versatile disk, a flash memory,random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), a register,programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasablePROM (EEPROM), a removable disk, a flash memory device, and any othersuitable medium for storing software that may be accessed and read by aprocessor or a processing system. It is also appreciated that oneskilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the describedfunctionality relating to adding new system functionalities to anexisting network element, depending upon a particular application withindesign constraints.

The term “unit” or “component” as used herein means software, hardware,or any combinations thereof. A unit may be implemented as a softwarecomponent, a hardware component, or any combinations thereof, includinga field programmable gate array (FPGA), logic, logic arrays, applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), digital signal processor (DSP),microcontroller, microprocessor, etc. or any combinations thereof. Theunit thus may include software components, task components, processes,procedures, functions, program code, firmware, micro-codes, circuits,data structures, tables, arrays, and variables.

While for the purpose of simplicity the methodologies are describedherein as a series of steps or acts, it is to be understood that theclaimed subject matter is not limited by the order of steps or acts, assome steps or acts may occur in different orders and/or concurrentlywith other acts from that shown and described herein. Further, not allillustrated steps or acts may be required to implement variousmethodologies according to the present technology disclosed herein.Furthermore, the methodologies disclosed herein and throughout thisspecification are capable of being stored on an article of manufactureto facilitate transporting and transferring such methodologies to one ormore processing systems. The term “article of manufacture” is intendedto encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readabledevice, carrier, or medium. A singular form may include a plural form ifthere is no clearly opposite meaning in the context. Also, as usedherein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items.Further, no element, act, step, or instruction used in the presentdisclosure should be construed as critical or essential to the presentdisclosure unless explicitly described as such in the presentdisclosure. As used herein, except explicitly noted otherwise, the term“comprise” and variations of the term, such as “comprising,”“comprises,” and “comprised” are not intended to exclude otheradditives, components, integers or steps. The terms “first,” “second,”and so forth used herein may be used to describe various components, butthe components are not limited by the above terms. The above terms areused only to discriminate one component from other components, withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure. Also, the term“and/or” as used herein includes a combination of a plurality ofassociated items or any item of the plurality of associated items.Further, it is noted that when it is described that an element is“coupled” or “connected” to another element, the element may be directlycoupled or directly connected to the other element, or the element maybe coupled or connected to the other element through a third element. Asingular form may include a plural form if there is no clearly oppositemeaning in the context. In the present disclosure, the term “include” or“have” as used herein indicates that a feature, an operation, acomponent, a step, a number, a part or any combination thereof describedherein is present. Further, the term “include” or “have” does notexclude a possibility of presence or addition of one or more otherfeatures, operations, components, steps, numbers, parts or combinations.Furthermore, the article “a” as used herein is intended to include oneor more items. Moreover, no element, act, step, or instructions used inthe present disclosure should be construed as critical or essential tothe present disclosure unless explicitly described as such in thepresent disclosure.

Although the present technology has been illustrated with specificexamples described herein for purposes of describing exampleembodiments, it is appreciated by one skilled in the relevant art that awide variety of alternate and/or equivalent implementations may besubstituted for the specific examples shown and described withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure. As such, the presentdisclosure is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of theexamples and/or embodiments shown and described herein, withoutdeparting from the spirit and the technical scope of the presentdisclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. An optical transceiver, comprising: a processingdevice coupled to a memory; an optical subassembly coupled to theprocessing device and configured to receive and modulate a first signalcarrying high speed user data for transmission to a remote opticaltransceiver over an optical link; and a programmable device coupled tothe processing device and configured to: receive data relating todigital diagnostic monitoring information (DDMI) of the opticaltransceiver from the processing device; perform forward error correction(FEC) encoding on the data relating to DDMI to produce a remote digitaldiagnostic monitoring (RDDM) signal; and send the RDDM signal to theoptical subassembly as a second signal to modulate, wherein the opticalsubassembly is further configured to current modulate the second signalon the first signal to produce a double modulated optical signal fortransmission to the remote optical transceiver over the optical link. 2.The optical transceiver of claim 1, wherein the optical transceivercomprises a small form factor pluggable (SFP) or 10 Gigabit small formfactor pluggable (XFP).
 3. The optical transceiver of claim 1, whereinthe programmable device is further configured to perform cyclicredundancy check (CRC) on the data relating to the DDMI.
 4. The opticaltransceiver of claim 1, wherein the programmable device comprises afield programmable gate array (FPGA).
 5. The optical transceiver ofclaim 1, wherein the programmable device is further configured to:receive a third signal from the optical subassembly, the third signalcomprising a RDDM signal from the remote optical transceiver over theoptical link; perform FEC decoding operation on the third signal; andrecover DDMI data relating to the remote optical transceiver.
 6. Theoptical transceiver of claim 1, wherein the second signal comprises alaser diode (LD) bias current which is used to current modulate thesecond signal on the first signal to produce the double modulatedoptical signal having a modulation depth.
 7. The optical transceiver ofclaim 6, wherein the optical subassembly is configured to generate thedouble modulated optical signal with the modulation depth in a range ofabout 4% and about 6%.
 8. The optical transceiver of claim 7, whereinthe modulation depth is a ratio of a current value of the second signalto a current value of the first signal.
 9. The optical transceiver ofclaim 1, wherein the data relating to DDMI comprise parameters relatingto operation and management of various components of the opticaltransceiver.
 10. The optical transceiver of claim 1, wherein the FECencoding uses at least BCH (31,16) codes or Reed-Solomon codes.
 11. Amethod of optical communications at a first optical transceiverincluding a field programmable device, comprising: at the fieldprogrammable device: receiving data relating to digital diagnosticmonitoring information (DDMI) of the first optical transceiver, thefirst optical transceiver configured to modulate a first signal carryinghigh speed user data via an optical subassembly of the first opticaltransceiver; performing forward error correction (FEC) encoding on thedata relating to DDMI to produce a remote digital diagnostic monitoring(RDDM) signal; and sending the RDDM signal to the optical subassembly ofthe first optical transceiver as a second signal to current modulate thesecond signal on the first signal to produce a double modulated opticalsignal for transmission to a remote second optical transceiver over anoptical link.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein sending the RDDMsignal to the optical subassembly comprises sending a laser diode (LD)bias current to the optical subassembly of the first opticaltransceiver.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the optical subassemblyof the first optical transceiver is configured to generate the doublemodulated optical signal with a modulation depth in a range of about 4%and about 6%, the modulation depth being a ratio of a LD bias current ofthe second signal to a LD bias current of the first signal.
 14. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the optical subassembly of the first opticaltransceiver is configured to convert an electrical signal into anoptical signal coupled to the optical link and to receive an opticalsignal from the optical link and convert the optical signal into anelectrical signal.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein performingforward error correction (FEC) encoding on the data relating to DDMIfurther comprises cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the data.